Patajali, an Indian physician turned sage, suggested one possible answer when he wrote the Yoga Sutras in approximately 200 B.C. Among other things, the book, which was designed to help people develop their mental, physical, and spiritual health and wellbeing, addressed the question: How do people know anything?

Patanjali described four ways you know something: by (a) its physical appearance, (b) the associations you have with it, (c) the meaning it has for you and (d) its spirit or essence. The way you know also determines how you experience intuition.

When your primary modes of knowing are based on (a) the physical or material world and (b) your associations with it, intuition is an occasional guest in your life. Intuition does function at this level, but it is more like a tool that you pick up, or something that is suddenly there or not. If you are working with intuition on these levels, it will seem unpredictable.

When you are leading a fulfilling life, one with meaning for you (level c), intuition can be fully integrated in your life and an equal partner with your logic, if you commit to it.

Remember: intuition thrives in meaning and travels on love. When you love your life and its purpose, intuition becomes a way of life. You understand how it functions and know that you can count on intuition's wise and elegant input.

The fourth way-spiritual or essence level knowing allows you to be one with or resonant with that which you want to know. At this level there is no separation between yourself and the other, so direct knowledge is available.